Hi all
I get asked a lot about how to make a song sound well polished when it comes to mixing, and production...
The following might help, it's meant to spark ideas, question oneself and maybe you try a few things out, rather than same old, same old...
1. Do you know how you want the finished song to sound in your minds' ear? if you don't be prepared to spend quite a while in finding it, don't be disheartened if it takes months. A oil painter wouldn't just start a painting with no idea of how it should look would they?
2. If you do, then strive to get the best quality recording for each track, this should will reduce the amount of non planned technical processing, such as levels, noise , EQ etc. which can make the song sound less than radio ready, there is no reason your song cannot be radio ready, just don't expect it to be a quick process for guys like us. I stick with 48kHz sample rate and 24 bit depth, as a minimum, it just give higher resolution to start with, it's alway possible to dither it down to 16bit/44.1khz, but not the other way.
3. Decide what the star of the song is, Lead Vocal? Drums? nuture that and love it keep it higher in the mix by a bit, maybe by 2 dB, the rest will find it's place lower in the mix, if the star changes in the song, like a lead guitar solo, nuture that. by nuture I mean pay special attention to everything about it, EQ, fader levels, buss sends, it has to be as perfect as you can get, listen many times with different listening sources, car, iphone etc as well as in your studio, to ensure it sounds how YOU want it, (You'll never please everyone), and be bold to start, I generally get criticised for having the LVox high in the mix, but I want folk to notice the star, to sing it to remember it, to hear it through club walls, to notice it on a crappy taxi radio in a taxi in Prague. Once you're hooked you don't notice anything else in the song, take the 1st guitar solo in bohemian rhapsody, you can all sing it note perfect right? (except the ticky triplet bit halfway through), but how many of you can sing the drums, or the piano line...
4. Use submix busses and VCA's to isolate and balance a section. Submix busses are groups of tracks that can be controlled together and have effects applied to them all in one place, VCA is a way to alter the levels in proportion to each other, if you're unfamiliar, then take a look on YouTube, learn it a nd practise it, like you would do with the intrument you are playing on the song itself. These will vastly improve your mixing and the relationship between each instrument group, string pads vs backing vocals for example are usually tricky to get right.
5. Consider making more than one track for an instrument that might be tradtionally only one, like the Bass, a typcial scenario would be that a single bass guitar is tracked (recorded) and it's the devils own job to try and hget the sound just right, you try all sorts of Amp Sims, processing, speaker emulations but nothing hits the mark, so record another bass on a different setting or picked instead of fingered, on a different pickup, with a different amp sim, and maybe another. Create a submix buss and merge them until you get the sound you want, if you know what you want theat is...(point 1) (EDM songs often have many bass synths at any one time)
6. Don't do what everyone else does, be bold, stick to YOUR idea, it'll be great, and if you're not happy with it, someone else might be very happy with it...it surprises me that some folk really dig some of my least favourite work.
7. Don't rush, it's rare enough to be inspired, so look after it, if you get bored by listening 300 times to a track while mixing, that's just the way of things, get used to it.
8. Use plugins sparingly, typically on a lead Vocal there will be a bit of reverb to bring it to life, usually a plate, only use a tad, not much at star with 2% and gradually increase it, the same with delay, 'verb has the property of sending the track further in the virtual distance in the mix, which is contra to what is needed in a normal song, so go easy on it, you almost don't want to hear it, but notice when you take it away...A check is that you can hear it solo'd but it's not overly obvious un solo'd (of course there are many accasions where it's intended to mangle the track with fx, so this excludes those cases)
9. Just because you have 2000 plugins bought over the years, don't beat yourself up that you've bought them and never use most of them, that's just the way it is Baby (as the Rembrandts once sang)
You'll find over the years the plugins that work best for you, keep with them, even if they are free...Oh yes and don't fall for the old "10 times Grammy winner Butch Vig used this plugin, so should you" rubbish, it won't make you mix like him, never will.
10. Use the height (freq) depth (Reverb) and the width (pan) of your listeners soundstage, consider giving everything some space around it, and if you have to have the same frequency ranges together, then separate them by panning them apart. FabFilter Pro Q 3 reveals these frquency clashes beautifully
11. Use your ears, walk away if you start getting sound blind, go back another day.
12. Don't release it until you are completely satisfied with it, imagine you are a paying client to yourself, ask youself "Am I getting my money's worth, is this what I wanted?" Once it's been released it's a right embarrasing faff to put it right, like that email you shouldn't have sent to your boss...Check if the right parts of your body are stimulated, do you dance around the studio if it's a dance track, do you feel like crying if it's an emotional son, are you wielding your air guitar if it's a rock number...go back to point 1...
At the end of it all there is no right way, but there are plenty of wrong ones.
Hope this helps...
